05/24/2012, Stonehaven Anchorage, Hook Is., AU
A couple of days ago I received an email from John of S/V Sea Mist. It turns out that between S/V Sea Mist, S/V Kilkea and S/V Leu Cat, we have three birthdays all about the same time. Marian of Kilkea has her birthday on May 26, John of Sea Mist has his on May 28 and I have mine on May 29 (this is just a very subtle reminder for our kids, hint, hint, hint...).
John has suggested that we all get together for a trio of birthday parties at the Hamilton Island Marina on May 28th. This is a great suggestion works great for us since we had made reservations at the marina starting the 28th. I am anxious for an electrician to go up our mast then to see if he can fix my mast head light problem.
David and Marian of Kilkea apparently have decided that the weather is just too crappy here in the Whitsundays and have given up on rolly anchorages. They have booked an entire week in the marina! This is quite a feat since this is the most expense marina we have booked into. As a catamaran, we will be paying $120 a night! Ouch!!!
We last saw Marian and David in New Caledonia last year so we are anxious to see them again. Last fall they decided to sail SE from New Cal and spend the cyclone season in New Zealand. We first met them in 2010 in the Galapagos. We anchored next to each other at Isla Isabella. The six of us go back two years and about 7 thousand nautical miles, they have known John and Cheryl of Sea Mist for over 6 years. They all met while sailing around the Med and have followed each other ¾ of the way around the world!
We will look forward to seeing both the folks of Kilkea and Sea Mist in just a few days and after a super duper birthday celebration!
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05/23/2012, Stonehaven Anchorage, Hook Is., AU
The good news is that we did not have any liquid sunshine during the daylight hours today. The bad news was that it was hard to know when we were in the daylight hours. A dark grey, thick overcast hung over Leu Cat all day today. Additionally, the winds were remarkably still. Thus, between no sun and no wind, we did not take in much of nature's energy today to charge our batteries. The poor solar panels and the old wind generator just sat there and looked pretty, not doing much.
This meant that we had to run the generator a lot today. Normally, we can get away with not running it or, at most, just an hour. However, with no energy hitting our solar panels or wind generator, we first had to run the generator for 2 hours in the morning and then another hour this evening. We like being as green as we can and try hard to minimize our carbon print. However, today we failed miserably...
With it being a low energy day outside, it made for a low energy day on the inside. I scoured the boat hunting for boat projects to do. I found two little ones. The first was making some adjustments to the hanging boat steps I made for Mary Margaret. When we dock in a marina, sometimes we cannot use our sugar scoop steps to get off the boat. With smaller slips, our stern sticks out past the dock. When that happens we have to use the one little foot hold that is molded into the side of the hull amidships. With Mary Margaret's short legs, it is a challenge to reach that foothold and then it is a big leap to the dock. Last week I made a set of hanging steps that hopefully will make getting on and off the boat a bit easier for her.
The second little project was removing our speed sensor: what I call our "speedo". It is a little propeller that spins in the water and measures and reports our speed through the water. Whenever we sit at anchor or in a marina for a while, growth develops on the speedo and clogs it up. Thus, I removed it and put it in glass of diluted vinegar which will dissolve the calcium carbonate of the shells of the little critters that latch on to it.
After that, it was just reading, listening to music and playing Mexican Train Dominos and Sequence with Mary Margaret. Great day, huh?
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Mary Margaret spied this large angelfish and I was just able to snap its photo as he swam away.
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This was Mary Margaret;s favorite coral. She just loves its color!
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Here is some more of what I call "furry" coral. It is a hard coral whose polyps are so large and dense they wave at you in the current.
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